The School of Law and Politics has a thriving postgraduate research culture. We are keen to attract and engage with the next generation of legal scholars and to encourage innovative research in a wide range of fields.

We are keen to attract the next generation of legal scholars and to encourage innovative research across a range of varied areas of Law including commercial, discrimination, medical, family and civil justice.

The School of Law and Politics offers opportunities for both full and part-time study leading to the degrees of MPhil and PhD.

Distinctive features

Each full-time research student is allocated office space in the School’s own Graduate Centre.

Research students are entitled to financial support for travel or research related to their approved subject (e.g. attending a conference or visiting a specialist library) for every year of their supervision.

Students may be offered the opportunity to undertake part-time teaching on the undergraduate programmes.

The School encourages individual diversity and promotes innovation in research.

Key facts

Mode of study

Full-time, part-time

Qualification

PhD, MPhil

Full-time duration

PhD 3 years; MPhil 2 years

Part-time duration

PhD 5-7 years; MPhil 2-3 years

Start dates

January, April, July, October

We can offer supervision in a wide range of legal subjects including:

Islamic Law

Civil Justice

Commercial Law

Company Law

Comparative Law

Contract Law

Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility

Criminal Law and Justice

Discrimination Law

Employment Law

Environmental and Energy Law

European Law and Governance

Family Law

Feminist Legal Theory

Gender and the Law

Governance and Devolution

Human Rights Law

International Commercial Law

International Criminal Law

Intellectual Property

International Humanitarian Law

International Refugee Law and Asylum

Judicial Studies and Legal Decision-Making

Land Policy and Land Reform

Law and Development

Law and Literature

Legal and Social Theory

Legal Expertise

Medical Law and

Mental Health Law

New Technologies and Risk Regulation

Private International Law

Property Law

Public International Law

Public Law, Theory and Policy

Religious Law

Social Care Law

Sports Law

Tort Law

Transnational Dispute Resolution

Trusts.

If the area in which you are interested is not in the areas we mention, please feel free to contact us for an informal discussion.

The School has four main research cluster groups related to Law:

Medicine, Healthcare and Society

Governance and Constitutionalism

Procedural Justice

Regulation of Commercial Activity.

These groups reflect our key strengths and provide a supportive community for fostering intellectual and scholarly endeavour among staff and research students.

UK government postgraduate doctoral loans

Candidates for the Professional Doctorate programme may be eligible to apply for a UK government postgraduate doctoral loan.

Tuition fees

UK and EU students

Students from outside the EU

Applicants should have a good Honours degree in Law (2:1 or equivalent) or overseas equivalent in a relevant subject.

In addition to your formal application to the University we ask that you also upload a clear statement of your research proposal of about 5,000 words.Guidance on how to write a research proposal can be found on our webpage

English language requirements

Those whose first language is not English must obtain a score of at least 7.0 in IELTS (with no less than 6.5 in the Writing element and no less than 5.5 in Listening, Speaking and Reading).